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A B O U T M E

I am australian artist, designer, illustrator, small business owner and mother to two beautiful boys who are my constant strength and inspiration.

The majority of my work is in artists quality coloured pencils, however I also have series of works in oils, acrylics and pen.

I have created this art journal to document my journey, whether it be art, design, promotion or business. I look forward to sharing my experiences, techniques and inspirations with others and hope that it can in turn help others on their journey, or maybe might just help to fill in a bit of free internet browsing time :)

Belinda Lindhardt

Friday, March 27, 2009

Here is nice little one i have done for a family member's birthday. i hope she doesnt see this post and ruin the surprise, i dont think she will :) She loves roses, and we saw a painting recently that she really liked in this style, so i thought i would do one for her.I know she will love it :)

This one i completed in under a week :) pretty proud of that effort :) Here is a pic that i posted on tweetpic, which you would have seen via twitter if your a twitter follower, and if you are .. are you following me ? www.twitter.com/steelkey.

I have had a very busy week this week, getting on with all sorts of things, i think i am finding my path but just sitting on it all for now and getting on with what needs to be done.Part of that is working on my new website design. My current site / gallery is broken, i think i am going to rework things and start again.

My youngest also turned 3 this week, wow 3 years gone by, we had fun celebrating his birthday with some friends. A bit nostaligic for birthdays at the moment so many things changing its hard to work out where my feet are at, but as long as the kids have fun thats my ultimate goal.

Monday, March 23, 2009

During the holiday / christmas period the boys and I spent a bit of time at the beach and collected quite a few shells :) They have been sitting in a bucket and I have looked at them from time to time knowing there was inspiration there. So many wonderful colours and shapes and textures, also an nice happy feeling that comes from going to the beach and summer.

On the weekend, i was setting some shells up for a still life coloured pencil piece and decided to start on this pen drawing while i was there :) I don't have to be as disciplined with these pen drawings as i would with a cp artwork, i can just start drawing and let it evolve.

Friday, March 20, 2009

This just started evolving into what you see above. I had envised a few things different, but just went with the flow of it just an experimented and a bit of fun.

I have had this piece of illustration board in my cupoard for a while and wanted to give it a try. It held up the watercolour surprisingly well as i tend to be heavy handed with watercolour. The pen was a little harder to work with on this than on the paper i had used in my last peice. I think i would use it again just maybe a little differently.

I think i could keep going on this one if i really wanted but i think its done its dash :) i like the girl i might do her again in another piece.

Just trying to relax on a few things at the moment, until i work out some direction. I have moved my office from my house to my studio, i cant begin to tell you want a difference this had made mentally. Previously, I was always being pulled to getting work done, even if it was just checking emails. Now when i am in the house, its time to do household chores and learning and quality time with my boys. There is now a distinction between work and personal which needed. I still have drawing area in the house to do artwork and illustration early mornings and at night and a computer to browse the internet but i have no software for emails, graphics etc so i physically can't do it when i am down there. I am a better mother and person for it :)

I will be a bit sparse the next few days my youngest is turning 3 on Tuesday have to do a cake and wot not :) How the time is flying by trying to make the most of every moment i can :)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Here is the weekend's illustration.I love doing these i think i will begin to do these more regularly.

Sorry about the lack of posts, i have been around, i am busy, busy with stuff as well as having another session where i am sorting out where i want to go from here. I think sometimes we stretch ourselves too far, sometimes its good just to pull back and work out what is really important and also just to get on with getting a job done.

I sorted and reorganised out my studio last week, i think i need to seperate my work from home life a bit more so i am forcing myself to work up there rather than in my house. I might have been sufferring from a bit of burnout. I love the new studio tho it looks great, will post a pic soon. It was also my 33rd birthday last week, i got spolit by all my boys :) had a great time, a am a very lucky woman. :)

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Following on from my previous post on Willys Bubbles, on framing drafting film, i thought i would investigate a little further to work out which backing option i am going to go with when framing this piece. When doing a drafting film piece its always important to consider this, as your final result will be impacted by this and will mean that you will need to push or pull colours or highlights to compensate.

Its really hard to see the differences in these crude photos but you can slightlyso let me start. What i have done is display the artwork with different coloured card / paper behind them. You can see i have indicated the colour underneath each one.

The most noticable difference happens if you look at the ones with the light and the dark colours. eg. On the white one you can see the highlights on the face look quite exaggerated and harsh, kinda makes him look angry especially for a child where you dont want this look, whereas on the black or dark colour the highlights are not as obvious they seem to blend together more, its softer. In real life the differences are more obvious and the trade off is that on dark backgrounds the skin tones are a bit grey and colours not as vibrant (which is why i made them so bright as i was working) so its important to note that if you are going to do a piece like this and going to have it on a dark backing card you will need to make sure you make your whites white by working on the back and the front of the film, otherwise they will look grey. But if your artwork is prodominately a "light" coloured piece you may opt for a "light backing" so as not to make it too hard for yourself, use it to your advantage.

I haven't decided 100% as yet but i think i will go with the mid-tone backing, most likely the brown or grey. The black looks actually not too bad but i think it might just be pulling the colours back a tad. I will take the final photo once i decide :)

This artwork is just about there, as usual i am content with it, of course there are lots of things i would like to correct but for now i think i am done, barring a few minor fixes in between sprays of fixative.

The next question for this one is framing, i have a frame already set to go to match my "Maxys Bubbles" frame, so the frame itself is ok, however, with drafting film as its see through you need to include some type of coloured backing board which shows through. The colour of the backing changes the final output of the artwork. This photograph is taken on a tan background, when i placed it on a dark background it changed the "look"alot, and on a white or light background it changes again. i am not sure which route to take yet.

For the matt, i am thinking of framing this one with my signature under the drawing and the matt cut so that it shows the edges of the pencil onto the film, but it might look a bit funny. The reasoning is so that it shows off the materials used for this artwork ie. the film and the pencil, otherwise many people overlook these qualities and think that its just paint. :)

Anyway lots to do today this framing is just one of them. I framed my Gathering Strength last night for the exhibition. Its looking fab ! more photos to come !!! stay tuned.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

This weekend i will be entering 3 coloured pencils artworks in the International Womens Day Exhibitionrun by the Multi Arts Conferation.

The 3 pieces on display are "Gathering Strength", "Maxys Bubbles" and my newly completed "Willys Bubbles".The exhibition is open to the public from 9.30 to 5pm on Saturday & Sunday 6/7 March 2009 and is at Gosford High School, Gosford.

These artworks won't be forsale at this exhibition, however, greeting cards can be purchased for $4.20 each or 3 for $12- via me directly, or from the redbubble website. I have in stock"Gathering Strength" greeting cards as well as various cards of other artworks. Email belinda.lindhardt@gmail.com for details.

If your from the central coast area and happen to go along please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts on the exhibition itself and works from the various artists.

For those of you who are looking at my website at the moment i appologise, its currently down, i have changed my website hosts and having a few issues with my rellocating my website. Hope to have it up ASAP.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

This one is getting there.. I can see some things which are showing up on the photo aren't quite as prominent in real life so theres a bit more to do. This one has to be done by the weekend so i best get cracking.!!!The drafting film is frustrating me a bit at this point, as i can't put down as many layers as i would like, and i can't blend as much as i like to. So it means lots of light layers, rubbing and then more light layers. more to come :)